SIL 2016 Congress

31 July - 5 August 2016, Torino, Italy

Special Session SS34: Alien species ecological impacts: from genomics to macroecology

Alien species are considered one of the major threats to ecosystems and to endangered species and are
extremely difficult to be managed after their establishment. Therefore, scientific efforts should be directed
to understand the mechanisms underlying alien species success. To this respect, making data and tools
readily available, through appropriate activities of e-Science, appears crucial to address emerging issues
and open up new perspectives for a better understanding and wiser conservation and management of
biodiversity. Within this context, LifeWatch, the European Virtual Biodiversity Research Infrastructure, has
the commitment to become a reference for researchers, policy makers and public authorities. Recently,
it has promoted a European-level case study designed to assess the vulnerability of ecosystems to alien
species. LifeWatch endorses this SIL session, with the aim to contribute achieving a better understanding
and managing of biological invasions, along different perspectives, from genomics to macroecology. Three
main issues will be addressed, from single species, to individual populations and whole ecosystems: i) the
state of the art of biological invasion in freshwaters, ii) the comparison across typologies (from inland to
coastal marine aquatic ecosystems), iii) the e-Science approach to alien species impacts.

Selected papers presented at this special session will be published in the special issue of the international open access journal Aquatic Invasions.